From May this year, all university students in France will be eligible for a hot meal costing just €1 in state-run university canteens, but students and aid organisations warn that subsidised meals address only one facet of the much broader crisis they’re facing.
Living on a shoestring has long been a feature of undergraduate life, but student poverty is rising in France.
A recent survey of more than 5,000 university students, carried out by the Union Etudiante, found that one in three students in France are left with less than €50 a month after covering rent and bills, while one in 10 have nothing left at all at the end of the month.
Eight out of 10 students surveyed said they had already gone without essentials such as heating, food, healthcare or leisure activities.
Marian Blocquet, a 21-year-old master’s student in Paris and president of the student union Renouveau Syndical, says food insecurity is now widespread.
"One in two students in France is skipping a meal every day. That means students are not eating enough," he says. "And that leads to health problems and makes it difficult to continue and succeed in [your] studies."
Reliance on food banks
Almost a quarter of France’s university students receive means-tested bursaries to pay tuition fees and help with living costs – meaning 76 percent do not.
Blocquet notes that the criteria for receiving bursaries are being tightened, and that the payments have not kept up with inflation and energy bills.
His family's income is not low enough for him to receive assistance, but nor are his parents in a position to help him. While he now has a decently paid part-time job, he previously had a tough three years as an undergraduate.
"Every week I would go to food distribution points to collect a food parcel with vegetables and pasta. Sometimes, if we were lucky, there would be eggs as well."
Recent surveys show 18 to 20 percent of students in France rely on food aid – whether food banks or distribution points – run by student non-profits including Cop1 or Linkee.
"They’re vital," says Bloquet. "Without these distributions I would have been eating only pasta every day, no protein."
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€1 meals
Under pressure from the Socialist Party, the government has agreed to extend a €1 student meal scheme that was first introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic for students on very low incomes.
As of May, university canteens will provide hot lunches to all students regardless of income for €1, rather than the current price of €3.30.
The government has allocated €30 million in its 2026 budget to compensate the Crous – the public student services body in charge of grants, housing, canteens and social aid – for the lost revenue. It has also announced an additional €20 million to help canteens recruit extra staff.
"It will provide money to students who do not receive grants and who are also in a precarious situation, particularly those who are just below the threshold for receiving grants," Philippe Baptiste, minister for higher education, told Le Monde.
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Students supporting students
Grassroots initiatives have emerged to fill the gaps left by public provision.
In southern Paris, a student-run community kitchen known as Cop1ne provides good quality hot meals for €3 to students, regardless of income.
The project, run largely by volunteers, is 60 percent self-financed with the rest provided through donations, partnerships with food cooperatives and subsidies from Paris City Hall and regional authorities.
More than just food, Cop1ne also offers a social space designed to counter isolation, which surveys show affects nearly a third of students – much higher than the national average of 19 percent.
Justine, a 22-year-old student, says friends recommended it to her when she arrived in Paris. "I was feeling a bit lonely. It was a great way for me to settle into a city like Paris, but also to meet people, eat properly and eat well."
For 18-year-old volunteer Lila, Cop1ne is important "to show that we can support one another".
Students share good food but also cultural events – providing a crucial point of connection, not least for foreign students.
"If I'm here volunteering for three or four hours straight in a kitchen with some other French students, it's a lot easier for me to just talk," says Ellie, an American exchange student with limited French.
Listen to a report on the Cop1ne community kitchen and student poverty in the Spotlight on France podcast
Housing insecurity
"Student vulnerability extends beyond simply having enough to eat. It includes the issue of housing," says Blocquet.
Accommodation shortages are particularly acute in Paris. "There are fewer than 8,000 university residences in Paris, whereas there are 80,000 scholarship students."
There’s also a dire shortage of affordable student rentals. Blocquet pays €700 for a small attic studio, and receives €200 in housing benefit.
His studio is poorly insulated: "When I come home in winter it’s 14°C, and then in the summer it rises to 40°C."
Before finding his part-time job, he spent months living in a room that resembled "a cellar" and then a period sleeping on friends’ sofas after being evicted.
He says experiences like these are common. "In a survey we conducted on student housing at the beginning of the year, one in 10 students in France reported having been homeless at some point."
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Budget cuts
Cuts to higher education and public services more generally are aggravating student hardship.
"Since 2017, successive governments have cut the higher education budget. Last year, they cut €800 million, and €700 million the year before," Blocquet notes.
The Crous is in financial difficulty. The Paris branch in particular, which Bloquet says has a budget deficit of €2 million for 2026.
Some unions have questioned whether the €1 meal scheme is sustainable.
The CFDT union, France’s largest, pushed the government to put the additional €20 million for staffing on the table saying "without extra jobs, the measure won’t work".
It warned: "The student meal for €1 mustn’t become a factor of professional exhaustion, an accelerator of precarity, a risk for the quality of public services".
With the real cost of a university canteen lunch at between €8 and €9, using mainly French products, 15 percent of which are organic, there are concerns too that the quality of the €1 lunches will drop.
"We have eight different dishes a day and a daily homemade dessert," the head chef at Paris-VII university canteen told Le Monde. "The students are attached to it, and so are we."
